


Remember it

by iriswesttt



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6093766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iriswesttt/pseuds/iriswesttt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry leaving for college</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember it

Iris knew it would be distressing, she had been waiting for the moment when things would finally dawn on her and she would break down, but being completely honest she was expecting (or at least hoping), for it to be when she would be back home, alone in her room and she could have a good cry without anyone witnessing it.

Instead her stubborn tears decided that Barry’s goodbye hug would be their cue. In the middle of his new living room, and then she can’t stop it anymore, and god, her sobs are so embarrassing, and she’s making the shoulder of his shirt completely wet with tears and probably a little saliva too, cause that’s the state she’s in, it’s not a pretty cry, and the fact that her dad and Barry’s new roommate are there, watching it, makes it ten times worse, but he holds her tight, his arms on her waist, keeping her on her toes cause he had to go and grow that tall, and she’s absolutely not the one letting go first. 

She hears her dad saying;  _let’s give them a minute_  and disappearing through the door of Barry’s tiny apartment, pulling the roommate with him and leaving Iris and Barry alone. 

It’s still humiliating, but a little less so, cause it’s Barry and he’s seen her in even more humiliating situations, like the time Dave Swayer refused to kiss her on spin the bottle in front of everyone, saying mean things to her and Barry punched him in the face, or the time they were at Brooke Harlot’s 16th birthday party and she hadn’t realised that her brand new white silk top would go see through under the party lights (not a good day to go braless) so Barry pulled her aside the second they stepped in the party and offered her his sweater. 

Besides he was crying too, in a more composed manner, just a few tears, making his eyes even greener, they always looked greener when he cried, but still, the way he breaths her in, she knows that if anyone would understand her at this moment it would definitively be him.

She pulls away a little and watches him take a sharp breath and hold it in and this is stupid. Having to say goodbye, going to a different school, having him move out of home and leave her alone, she would punch him if she had it in her to let him go. He offers her an unconvincing smile and it just makes things worse. She can’t smile back. Her lips won’t obey her. He dries her tears from her cheeks, delicately, with the pad of his fingers and she pushes his hair from his forehead. 

It’s too long. The hair, that is. They spend the whole summer avoiding any and all responsibilities, watching too many movies and having more ice-cream than humanly possible and walking around town and sun-bathing and not packing anything or having hair cuts and now his hair was ridiculously long and he probably had forgotten something completely fundamental at home (or at least she was hoping so, so he would have to go back home to get it and the endless two weeks she had until she would see him again would be cut a little shorter). It hurts too much. Saying goodbye. She had never spend more than two days away from Barry ever since he had moved in and now he was leaving her all alone with a hollow feeling in her lungs and  _god_  she wished she could stop crying.

He grabs her hand, rubbing his fingers on her knuckles the way he does when he wants to calm her down and she’s able to breath in and stop her tears long enough to hear him mumbling;

“I’ll see you in two weeks. Two weeks fly by.”

“No, they don’t”, she whines back at him. How can he be this calm? It’s not fair. He’s the one leaving and she’s the one who gets to fall apart. 

“They won’t, they’ll take forever, but we’ll talk every day”, he smiles at her, probably because she’s literally pouting and being completely ridiculous, but it’s a real smile this time, and it’s full of his adoration for her so she relax enough to smile back.

“Twice.”

He laughs at that. She punches his shoulder for good measure. He should know better than to think her distress is funny. But he doesn’t even pretend it hurt this time, like he usually does, instead he assures her;  

“Twice, and we have Skype and I’ll text you all the time.”

“How can you be so calm?”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t even breath, but I figured you’re falling apart so I’m trying to hold you together, so I should be together…”

She taps him on the shoulders to let him know she wants another hug and he moves into it.  She nuzzles into his neck and then, carefully, places her lips on it. He freezes under it and she doesn’t move. Doesn’t even dare to breath in. It’s not a kiss, not really, she just wants to feel his skin, warm, under it so she can remember it when he’s not there, so she can know how he tastes like when she doesn’t have him there to make her laugh.

She pulls away and he looks at her earnestly, with an intensity she doesn’t remember ever seeing in his eyes and he whispers;

“I love you, Iris.”

And she can’t think it through. She can’t mull over it. She’s already broken enough, and it doesn’t mean what she think it means. He’s her best friend, her family, of course he loves her. So she nods and tell him;

“I love you too.”

And he nods back at her, a soft smile that doesn’t match the sadness in his pretty eyes, and she’s going to miss him so much.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my tumblr iriswestthings


End file.
